IT Terms

[Doug Harris]

1]      The tinyurl is either broken or invalid.
2]      In your example list, it's a good thing 'kernel' is defined
        as "the central component of most computer operating
        systems" and not "the major... ".  Rank confusion, that.
3]      I always thought 'petaflop' was something done to a
        spaniel's -- or one of my basset's -- ears.
dh


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----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "David Marc Fischer" <davemarc at PANIX.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Received: 3/23/2009 11:30:57 AM
Subject: IT Terms


>For what it's worth, HP offers a list of "The most baffling IT terms
>explained."

>http://tinyurl.com/d2bat5

>An excerpt is below.

>Best,

>David

>*

>The Global Language Monitor (GLM) analyzes and catalogues the latest
>trends in language the world over, and each year the organization compiles
>a list of the “Top Ten Most Confusing Yet Frequently Cited Tech Words”.
>We’ve taken some of the terms from their list, added a few of our own, and
>given them all plain definitions.


>    * Petaflop: This is a word you’ll probably see in conjunction with
>discussions of supercomputing. A petaflop can be expressed as a
>thousand trillion floating point operations per second; it is a
>measure of performance for the fastest computers in the world.
>    * ASP: This one is particularly tricky because it’s an acronym with
>two meanings. An Active Server Page is an HTML page that includes one
>or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a
>Microsoft® Web server before the page is sent to the user. An
>Application Service Provider is a business that provides
>computer-based services to customers over a network.
>    * Kernel: This is the central component of most computer operating
>systems, responsible for managing the system's resources and the
>communication between hardware and software components.
>

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